Judge agrees to release Chad Johnson after seven days

Posted by Michael David Smith on June 17, 2013, 11:30 AM EDT

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When a Florida judge felt that Chad Johnson wasn’t taking a probation hearing seriously enough, she said she would throw him in jail for 30 days. But now the same judge has decided that seven days was enough.

Judge Katherine McHugh ruled today that Johnson can be released from jail, 23 days earlier than she had originally given him after he slapped his attorney on the butt and drew laughter during a probation hearing in her courtroom.

According to TMZ, McHugh scolded Johnson for his history of disrespectful behavior and also told him that what he did to his ex-wife in 2012, when he was arrested for domestic abuse, was “horrific.” And she extended his probation for another month, through October 16.

But in the end, she seems to have come to the decision that 30 days in jail is too severe for a playful pat on the butt. And so Johnson will be a free man.

What a great humanitarian and role model, we need more players like you Chad, you are the definition of winner!!! I loved watching you help get the Beengals to all of those Super Bowls, just, again, I can’t say it anymore clearly, a class act!!

Seems appropriate, 30 days would be too much for making a joke. He did deserve some punishment for it though. At root this is about hitting a woman, not hitting a butt. If you are in court for that you better not let the judge think you don’t take it seriously, because it’s a very serious offense.

Why do people keep saying that she gave him the 30 days for patting the lawyer on the butt?

She just decided not to accept the plea agreement. That is something that happens all of the time. While not defending the judge, here is something to think about.

Chad violated the terms of his parole, the charge was based upon domestic abuse. This is a very serious charge. He was given probation, which means that anything you do to step out of line means you could and should be going to jail.

While in a courtroom, the judge is to be respected. If right after the judge hands down a ruling, laughter breaks out – whether they see the action, the hearing of laughter demonstrates something was done to cause that laughter OTHER than the ruling meaning either someone did something or something happened that showed the judge up. Most judges would hammer a normal offender for this, but someone who has a prior history of not respecting authority will get hit harder.

Now this judge decided to shorten the 30 days for parole violation and extend parole for 30 more days, however it could’ve been worse.

If in fact, Chad was taking the court seriously, then it could be said that he got jobbed by the people in the courtroom that laughed.

Since I believe Chad was just being goofy, he should remember that being goofy or being anything but on the best behavior should be left for outside the courtroom.

If he didn’t beat his wife and miss his probation hearings he never would have been there…SO…he beat his wife, decided the court ordered probation hearing wasn’t important, should have went to jail for the missed meetings and when getting a deal he didn’t deserve he then chose to pulled a stunt like that and the judge took the deal off the table. Which is within her right as final say on if the deal will be honored.

So yeah…in the end the butt slap ended with Jail time but the amount of Jail time existed well before the butt slap and a history of disrepecting the court by MISSING HIS MEETINGS means that sentence was perfectly fair in my mind.

The lecture by the judge is irrelevent and only an attempt to seem like she didn’t overreact(which she did). What ever CJ had done, she had already signed off on the plea deal and the ONLY reason reason she threw him in jail was because of a little butt-tap. If you watch the video, it was so small and inconsequential as to be hardly noticable. It was only when the court erupted with laughter, which I doubt was CJ’s intent, she got mad and abused her power. A disgrace.

This judge put Chad Johnson in jail because she could, an obvious abuse of power. It still required tax payer’s dollars to support Chad Johnson for the seven days he was incarcerated. That to me is the real crime here. I’d like to see that judge jailed for seven days, a far better use of tax dollars.

hey look the justice system prevailed..ocho got a fourth of the time less than stallworth got for killing a man while drunk driving. which is how it should be right. goofing off in the courtroom gets you 7 days in jail and you multiply that by 4 for murder by stallworth and you get..not even 30 days in jail?

chad shows up in court for a very important probation violation and he isn’t wearing a suit or even a jacket but rather a t shirt that’s the first sign of disrespect for the court system having head butted a woman started all this that shows no respect for women the judge kinda got this right he deserved some punishment for failing to take her and the system seriously so she gives him 30 days sits back and listens to people speak and a 7 day sentence is the result. she didn’t collapse under the weight of peoples opinion yet she backed off enough to be seen as strict not tyrannical. she did her job now maybe chad can get his act together and move on with his life we shall see

This was a ridiculous punishment for what amounts to a very mild contempt of court. If anything he should have been booked for a weekend and then turned loose. This judge is a perfect example of someone who takes him/herself too seriously.

“Mr. Johnson, we don’t slap butts in court. The next time you do it, you’ll be in contempt of court.”

Here why this is ridiculous. THE Judge said “You have a good lawyer there!”, and that “He did a good job”. Chad said, “thank you and good job” while patting him on his lawyer’s butt. Then she got pissed because others were laughing in the courtroom(and even said as much). It is up to the Judge to keep order in the courtroom not Mr. Johnson! She even remarked about others thought it was funny, once again NOT in Mr. Johnson’s control. If anything, the Judge should have admonished the people in the courtroom, including her own bailiff who you can plainly see laughing on camera.

Before we start bashing Mr. Johnson, and trust me, I am no friend or supporter of a woman beater, we need to examine the actual facts. review the tape. I promise you everything I just said is true!

If you look at the video it was almost like the judge was trying to explain to everyone other than Johnson( even though she was talking to Johnson) why she threw him in jail, including how bad Loaiza’s injuries were, that he put his arm around the female prosecutor in a previous hearing, that he blew off all of his probation visits, followed by the infamous butt tap. She also said that the penalty for what he did to Loaiza was a year in jail, so any probationary sentence is a gift. Then she reduced the sentence to 7 days. Sounds like she got plenty of feedback since she put him in jail last week.

If we follow the judge’s train of thought then the entire court room should have been held in contempt of court as they all laughed and disrupted the proceedings. Her ruling in this case made no sense and in some ways contradicted herself. (Of course she proved that when she released him early).

I’m on the fence on this one. I think the judge badly overreacted, but she should at least have had the strength to stand by her sentence of 30 days. Or, why didn’t she just sentence him to 7 days to begin with. Makes one wonder how many times judges have made emotional decisions that have impacted someone’s life in an unfortunate manner.

glad your out chad. jail sucks and most of the time its too harsh a punishment for the petty crimes commited to get you in there. take probation serious though. they will throw you back in there no hesitation.

logicalvoicesays says:
Jun 17, 2013 11:33 AM
That judge took a wrong turn at the kitchen door. She needs to re-enter it and make me a sandwhich. #Truth

thumbs up: 280
thumbs down: 199

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Pathetic that this comment got some many upvotes, particularly since it isn’t even funny/original. Guess a lot of inadequate men follow this site — worried ladies are going to outperform you and get your job (or your bosses job)?

bigjdve says:
Jun 17, 2013 11:44 AM
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Did you just start following this story? He was off the hook and patted his lawyer on the butt to say good job then the judge changed their mind. So funny how people comment on these articles without even understanding the entire story

The issue here is not whether Chad did not live up to his own hype as a player, or even the head butting charge, because as I understand it, this woman is a major handful and I would wager she had more than something to do with what happened. Without excusing spousal abusers, there are simply some women out there that will play both sides of the card, knowing they can use the feminized legal system to their advantage by alleging crimes against a man, and in today’s justice system, when a female cries wolf, you are “guilty by allegation.” Fighting it is like struggling in quicksand – you simply make a bad situation worse because you can’t prove your innocence, which in this instance is a requirement. Surprised? If you don’t believe that, you had better hope that you don’t end up in a nasty divorce/custody battle with an ex, because you WILL find out the hard way that the law today is HEAVILY slanted towards females, beyond the expectation that a man should not defend himself from a woman’s attacks either. I’m not saying she attacked him, and they have figured out how to use it. I’m just saying that is the case in quite a number of instances, and other men, playing the role of “white knight” are all too eager to jump on the bandwagon and kick a guy when he is down, in hopes of appearing chivalrous and scoring favor with the females, which is a losing proposition because they actually do not value you for this (yet another story altogether).

The issue here is that the matter was basically decided and the judge went into informal mode by asking if his private attorney handled the matter to his satisfaction, i.e. “how did you like your attorney?” This is NOT NORMAL for a judge. She probably knows the attorney. Chad, thinking the tension of the moment had passed, responded informally with what players do to each other as a nod of approval. The judge reacted to her own feminist temperament, rather than the issue at hand, and it was INNAPPROPRIATE. The Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi, stepped in and said this ruling “had more to do with the judges temper than the subject before the court.” The judge was simply grinding her own axe.

The judge needs to be disciplined and you white knights need to realize that this gains you no favor with the ladies. You’re just a pawn in their quest to exercise control over you.

You may find this controversial but look closely and you will see that it is true. There are some ugly men out there that deserve to be punished but the vast majority of men simply want to be in love and do the right thing. This has become increasingly difficult in western society. Women have equal rights yet they also get and expect a free pass simply because they are women. Chad does not appear to be a mean or violent person and I am doubting this was entirely his fault but he is taking the punishment without complaining.

I’m not a fan of Chad’s but I doubt he is a bad man.

I think I am pointing out some truths here that are not popular in the main stream media and so I half expect to be blocked so as not to offend any women, but that’s not my intent, and I know there are many women out there that also see this happening and understand the negative consequences it is having on society and men in general.

Wow, the only thing more annoying than the bland and repeated sexists jokes are the amount of pissed off fem-o-nazi’s in here trying to prove their point. Guys, if you wanna be sexist, be funnier about it. Feminists, I’m sorry, but this isn’t about you or your issues, so please shut up.

2 major points everyone is missing about this story:

1) congratulating your attorney isn’t illegal, and the judge is a joke (regardless of f***ing gender) for punishing him for it.

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY
2) The Florida legal system is not only a joke, but the laughing stock of the law community. My godfather is a lawyer, and at my grad party he said “Well, if you don’t wanna go to college, you could always move down to Florida and take the BAR exam.” I go “haha very funny” and he said “I know, imagine how funny it would be if I was kidding.”